On October 24, 2008, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council met in the Great Hall of the People with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who came to attend the Seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM 7) in Beijing. After the talk, they attended the ceremony of signing the Agreement on Consular Relations between the People's Republic of China and Japan (the China-Japan Consular Agreement) and the Exchange of Instruments of Ratification of the Treaty between the People’s Republic of China and Japan on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. Hu Zhengyue, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, and Yuji Miyamoto, Japanese Ambassador to China, signed the China-Japan Consular Agreement on behalf of the government of China and the government of Japan respectively.

From August 2002 to March 2008, China and Japan held eight rounds of negotiations on the Consular Agreement. In April 2008, both sides reached a substantial agreement for concluding a Japan-China mutual legal assistance treaty. On December 1, 2007, the two countries signed the Treaty between the People’s Republic of China and Japan on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (the Japan-China Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty). Initialing the Japan-China Consular Agreement and accelerating efforts for the early entry into force of the Japan-China Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty were listed in the China-Japan Joint Press Communiqué on Strengthening Exchange and Cooperation between the Government of Japan and the Government of China, which was published on May 7, 2008, and were major outcomes of President Hu Jintao’s visit to Japan.